OfCom Looking into ‘What’s the most offensive term to describe someone with learning difficulties’ Poll

UK broadcast regular OfCom is looking into a UK TV host’s poll asking “what’s the most offensive term to describe someone with learning difficulties,” the Guardian reported.

Before showing the April 26 poll, the host, Matthew Wright, had been “discussing the comment made by Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry into press ethics and standards when he described prime minister David Cameron’s deceased son as ‘retarded.'”

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Wright’s channel, Channel 5, defended Wright’s poll, however, as “in the context of a serious and balanced discussion.” The BBC noted that OfCom guidelines instruct that “potentially offensive material must be justified by context.”

The Guardiannoted that this is “the latest in a string of on-air gaffes” by Wright. For example, viewers complained over his December comments on a teenager’s death, and he had to apologize in October for his comment on Amanda Knox. See our report on the 2,200+ complaints filed to OfCom over the December murder jokes here.